Counters and skylight!

The bus is really looking amazing! We have added counters, walls, love, and a skylight! What?! Yes!

Long time friends Dean and Holly from Washington were visiting recently, and Dean wanted to help us with the kitchen counters. It is what he does for a living...so we said absolutely. We love the help and the sense of friendship and community it creates. We bought solid wood counters from Ikea and were ready.

Dean sawing the hole for the sink. And a cool shot of the
window frames.

He needed to make some inside adjustments.
He is sawing...inside...Angela is terrified in the back!

Look how lovely!!!

Angela and Dean building a wall.

We realized that the giant air conditioner that was installed in the ceiling pop up vent was leaking when it rained. So we tried to seal it with some heavy duty rv roof sealant. It did not work. So we decided to take it out and put in a skylight. It's prettier anyway and now we will be able to lay on the futon and look up at the stars at night! We are going to make an insulated cover for when it is too hot or cold that can fit up in the skylight. The air conditioner was a huge piece of metal, but we were successfully wrastled it out!

Angela having a great time trying to seal the leak!

Elizabeth's ass wrestling the air conditioner....

and winning!!! (this is looking up through the bus)

You can see the skylight here with the painted ceiling, counters, walls
oh my!!! it looks gooooood!

Elizabeth's mom helping us paint. Out with the teal
in with the red river bottom. Keeping it earthy~like us!

Power, floors, and insulation~oh yeah!

Soooo, posting on a blog is not the 1st thing we want to do after building a bus all day. Needless to say, we are a bit behind in posting. We have done so many things to our tiny home that it actually looks like a house, not a bus (I mean, it's still a bus, but it's cute inside now).

We are wired! We have outlets throughout the entire length of the bus. Thanks to Elizabeth's uncle John. Electricity is surprisingly simple!!! We ran many circuits to make sure and distribute the power so we don't blow a fuse everyday. There is one for the refrigerator, inverter, toilet, bathroom, computer etc, and one for the portable air conditioner that we will inevitably have to buy in August (more on that later).

Uncle John...wiring us up!

power!

power and plumbing..so modern!

We didn't know we were going to rip up the existing plywood floor, but when we found a big rotten patch of moldy wood, we thought it would be best. So we stripped it down to the original bus laminate. We didn't take it to the metal, which was the right choice for us. It was in pretty good shape so we went with it.

Crow bars, muscles, and yelling were required to
pull up the plywood that was screwed down.

Elizabeth Sawzalled (?) around the counter we were leaving in.

Angela ripping up the tiles to expose more tiles
to eventually expose the screws that we were
then unable to unscrew...thus the crowbars!

For the flooring, we knew we need insulation, because it is a metal box! We started with a moisture barrier that has a low R-value and then laid a foil backed underlayment that adds even more insulation. Then we laid the laminate floor. We didn't originally think we would do laminate, but then our friend was redoing a house and offered us the laminate she was ripping out...for FREE! so we said YES! and spent $60 total on the floor for the underlayment and 2 additional boxes of flooring. It was going to cost over $300~yay!

Both layers of insulation

See the styrofoam in between and the roll of Reflectix
waiting to be applied.

For the walls we screwed 2X4s into the frame of the bus to create a frame to hang 1/4" birch plywood. We used styrofoam insulation in between the 2X4s and then a layer of Refletix in between the styrofoam and the birch. We are hoping for warmth or at least not freezing!

The beautiful floor! and the amazing walls!

This is getting close to what it looks like now...there is more coming VERY SOON we promise!